This week, we will focus on some of the interesting deals from the 2025 Summer NABC in Philadelphia.
Consider this deal from the Spingold knockout round of 64. As South, how do you play three no-trump on the lead of the spade seven (second highest from four low cards)?
It seems reasonable to win with dummy’s king and lead a club to the eight. If you do so, West wins with the ace, and back comes the spade two: 10, jack, queen.
Now, to keep communications open, you run the diamond jack to East’s queen, win the third spade trick and lead a diamond to dummy’s nine. Then you repeat the club finesse. Once it wins, your plan is to guess whether to cash the club king and play for 3-3 clubs, or to knock out the heart ace, hoping spades are 4-4 or that the defenders cannot win the heart ace and cash two spades.
Alas, it does not work out that way! When you take the second club finesse, West (Ron Rubin) wins the club queen and cashes out for down one.
No doubt declarer could have tackled the play differently, but he could be forgiven for assuming the club queen was onside. Had Rubin taken the first club trick with the queen, declarer would have knocked out the club ace and then be forced to guess whether spades were 5-3 or not. The percentages favor going after hearts; if spades do not break, the defender with five may not have the heart ace.
Three no-trump made against a less rigorous defense in the other room. This represented a gain of 12 international match points for William Pollack’s team.